Music: Delta Generators still a powerful force

By Jay N. Miller/For The Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Jan 4, 2018 at 5:03 PMJan 4, 2018 at 5:06 PM

The Delta Generators have probably been lauded as New England’s best blues group for several years now, almost since their beginnings in 2008 when they won the Boston Blues Challenge and then went on to a top 10 finish in the International Blues Challenge of more than 100 bands in Memphis.

The Plymouth quartet’s progress certainly hasn’t slowed down over the past year, with a couple of important events giving them a new charge as they head into 2018. First, the Delta Generators are one of the featured acts on this year’s Narrows Center Winter Blues Festival, which takes over the Fall River venue Jan. 12-13, with the DG’s performing Friday nigh.

The Friday night event runs from 5 to 11:30 p.m., with tickets $35 in advance, $37 day of show. Other headliners include guitarist Scott Sharrard from Gregg Allman’s band and Carolyn Wonderland. Saturday’s program runs from 6 to 11:30 p.m., with headliners including Damon Fowler and Anthony Gomes. Saturday tickets are $37 in advance, $42 day of show. There are also weekend tickets available for $62. Check narrowscenter.org or call 508-324-1926 for more info.

Secondly, the band has its first live recording available for fans, and it has a special local connection. “The Delta Generators Live at the Spire Center” was recorded at the Plymouth hall on Feb. 18, 2017, and is notable because it is the first recorded product with their “new guy,” vocalist Brian Templeton of Woburn. Music fans around the region know Templeton well for his work with the Radio Kings in the 1990s, when that band parlayed their masterful blend of blues, rock, R&B and rootsy soul into a recording deal with Icehouse Records of Memphis.

Templeton joined the Delta Generators in August 2016, after original singer Craig Rawding of Worcester opted to focus more on his solo work and step away from touring. Next weekend’s gig gives fans a chance to hear the band now that Templeton’s presence is firmly established, with a year and half under his belt. He and his bandmates are now adjusted to each other and yet still delighted at the combination of talents and potential they’ve discovered together.

“Having Brian Templeton join us has obviously changed our sound,” said Rick O’Neal, whose visceral guitar is one of the prime factors in the Delta Generators’ unique music. “Brian has a lot of varied musical experience, and his voice has what I like to call a great gospel sound to it. Craig and Brian are both outstanding singers, but they are definitely different. I think one thing Brian does is he adds more of an improvisation element, where he can go off in different directions every night, and that really helps keep it fresh for everyone. I also think he is an incredible harmonica player, and that brings a whole new element into our mix.”

“We try to take all of our many influences and blend them all together,” O’Neal continued. “We’re not trying to just stick with one particular sound or style, and I do think we have a sound where we are not afraid of adding in different influences. In that way we are similar to Brian’s old band, the Radio Kings, who had a really diverse sound. I think in their case, the Radio Kings veered much more into Americana, so that’s something that Brian has perhaps also added to our mix.”

The live CD is a heady mixture of Delta Generators’ past and present sounds. When they recorded it, they were only seven or eight months into playing with Templeton, so the record shows how they worked to merge their histories.

“The physical CDs are out now, and the digital versions will be out later this month,” said O’Neal. “We have been doing our recording with David Minehan at his Wooly Mammoth studio in Waltham, so he mixed the live record too, and it came out great, and the sound came out well. We just intended this live record as something to hold our fans over until we can do a new studio album, and we’re planning to start recording that in March.”

“The live CD is a real mix of material,” said O’Neal. “There is some of our older Delta Generators music, some of Brian’s solo work, and even some of his tunes from the Radio Kings. There are also a couple of covers we love, Howlin’ Wolf’s “Somebody’s in My Home,” and Frankie Miller’s “Devil Gun.”

When he was with the Radio Kings, Templeton collaborated with guitarist Mike DiNallo on their music. The Delta Generators, on the other hand, usually had Charlie O’Neal working up the musical portion, while Rawding would handle lyrics. Templeton and the band have adapted to that model.

“In the past, with Craig, I’d work up some stuff in my studio and bring him some demos,” O’Neal explained. “Craig would pick through them, find the ones he liked, and write lyrics that fit. It has been a very similar process with Brian; I hand over my stuff to Brian and he comes up with lyrics, and then we all get together and give it the full Delta Generators treatment.”

The other Plymouth half of the band is brother Rick O’Neal, on bass, with drummer Jeff Armstrong, a Kingston resident. But as many fans know, Rick O’Neal suffered a minor stroke a couple of years back, and lost some strength in his right hand. Since then he has devised an amazing method of playing his bass essentially one-handed, so well that most fans don’t even notice. Rick O’Neal has also earned a master’s degree at Northeastern University, and now spends his days teaching at Eastern Connecticut University.

“Rick’s right hand has been slow to come back, although he continues to progress,” said Charlie O’Neal. “He has timing issues, synchronizing his two hands when he plays, which is not good for a bassist, so he just does it all with his left hand. People just figure it’s a different technique, and he’s so good at it they don’t even realize why he’s doing it. But he’s doing well, and that university has a very strong music department. He’s teaching a course in jazz history, and also working with the jazz ensemble there, so he loves what he’s doing.”

Rick O’Neal’s day job and his other bandmates’ occupations sort of limit the touring the foursome does, but they’ve been happy enough to tour all over New England, and share stages with a litany of the best national artists of the past couple of generations, from Robert Cray to Johnny Winter. The four previous Delta Generators albums have all won plaudits, from their 2009 debut “Devil in the Rhythm” through 2011’s “Hard River to Row,” to 2014’s “Get on the Horse” to 2016’s “Hipshakers and Heartbreakers,” and their fans eagerly await every new record.

“We play a lot of New England rooms, and last week we played the Bull Run in Shirley, Mass., and it was a lot of fun and almost sold out,” O’Neal said. “We are writing for a new studio CD, and Brian has added a fresh new dynamic that we all enjoy. We’re still chugging along.”

Update: We checked in with Brockton’s Susie Cullen about the results of the benefit for hurricane victims of the American Virgin Islands, which she organized at the end of October. The show, with five area bands including Soul Box and Danny Klein’s Full House, drew an array of fans to the nightclub at Raynham Park for a Sunday show that lasted from noon to 8 p.m. Cullen, whose family roots are on the islands, reported that the event raised over $14,000, which has been distributed to several relief organizations down there, so kudos to her and music fans who came out for a good cause.